A Guide to All the Cozy Genres
Cozy has certainly become a buzzword attached to genre fiction. It all started with cozy mysteries, which have been around for decades. Now we’re seeing cozy science fiction and fantasy, and even cozy horror. So what exactly does “cozy” mean?
There are some common traits of so-called cozy books. Generally, they evoke a charming atmosphere with their setting. In cozy mysteries, this is often a small town—think of a quaint village in the English countryside. Fantasy adds some magic to that quaint village; horror adds ghosts. For science fiction, coziness often manifests as a ship, space station, or colony with a tight-knit crew. Readers can expect rich descriptions of the setting and a lot of atmosphere for a fully transporting reading experience.
Another common factor in these books is the stakes of the story. Cozy mysteries are somewhat confounding because the crimes they solve are typically murders! Nevertheless, the reader is not subjected to gory details or put in a position of extreme suspense. Likewise, cozy fantasy and sci-fi novels may deal with the aftermath of a large-scale conflict, but the characters are likely to be dealing with smaller, more internal or interpersonal challenges.
How Does It End?
Cozy books tend to have optimistic endings. Horror, sci-fi, and fantasy novels don’t have the same kind of plot conventions as romance and mystery, which dictate satisfying endings. But you can be relatively assured that protagonists win the day in a cozy book, giving readers assurance they’re in gentle hands.
Lastly, something quite common among cozy books is a romantic thread. Certainly not all cozy books have this, but enough do that I think it’s worth pointing out. It may also explain why an individual romance may be labeled as “cozy,” but you won’t typically find a section of cozy romances in a store the way you might for sports romance, Western romance, historical romance, etc.
You can basically think of cozy literature as the theme park versions of the genres. I ride the Jurassic Park rides at Universal Studios for the dinosaur vibes, but I know I’m safe from any real danger. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? That’s a topic for another day! Gritty books and cozy books both serve their purposes, so I’m not going to ascribe any moral judgments here.
Let’s dig in some more into the individual genres to see what sets them apart within their respective fields.
Cozy Mystery
Cozy mysteries, being a fairly old variety of mystery, have a lot of their own conventions. The investigators of the stories tend to be amateurs, and often women. The crimes have a puzzling nature that requires a solution. Many cozies have a distinct setting within the sphere of a hobby, an animal, an occupation, or even a cuisine. As a knitter and a crossword puzzle enthusiast, I have definitely read more than one cozy mystery catered very specifically to me.
If you’re looking to get into a cozy mystery, try Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala. This book, the first in a series, follows Lila to her Illinois hometown after a nasty breakup, where she aims to save her aunt’s failing restaurant. When a food critic drops dead after a confrontation with Lila, she must prove her innocence by figuring out the truth of his death.
Cozy Fantasy
Cozy fantasy is an incredibly fast-growing subgenre. Many of the newer books, like Legends and Lattes or The Spellshop, chronicle charming business ventures in a world that has experienced significant strife. But the vibes are really the key here. Some people consider J.R.R. Tolkein’s Middle Earth books cozy, despite the incredibly high stakes. So the definitions are blurry, for sure. Maybe imagining the cozy environment of the Shire carries readers through the moments of death and destruction.
As for my recommendation? If you haven’t read The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, now is the time, because the second book in the series arrives in July. In this book, Mika is a witch living alone, hiding her magic. Then, she gets invited to a mysterious house to help train three young witches. This is a risk for Mika, but the found family she becomes a part of is worth it.
Cozy Science Fiction
Cozy science fiction books are also all about that found family. They often have a hopeful view of our future, rather than acting as cautionary tales. Despite having alien creatures and outer space settings, these are the sci-fi books to read when you want to be reminded of your humanity.
Check out The Kindred by Alechia Dow. This novel posits a society that pairs people according to their minds, rather than keeping things separated by class the way society has historically operated. When a space duke named Felix is paired with a commoner named Joy, he sees a chance to forge a new future for himself. The two meet stealing a spacecraft, and then crash land on Earth. What will they make of it?
Cozy Horror
I think of cozy horror as the books for people who like to hold conflicting things in their mind. A particular situation may be really messed up if you look at it one way, but oddly wholesome or fitting if you look at it from a different angle. They are also the kinds of books that may focus on the small, humane things people can do in the face of seemingly overwhelming horrors.
If you’re looking to try out cozy horror and you have the constitution for body horror, try Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell. It’s cozy horror, fantasy, and romance rolled into one. Shesheshen is a shapeshifting monster mistaken for a human by Homily, who nurses her back to health when she is found injured at the bottom of a cliff. Shesheshen would love to lay her eggs in Homily, but she’s learning that’s not the way humans behave. Meanwhile, Homily is a monster hunter tasked with killing the shapeshifter monster that’s been lurking around. That’s the formula for a star-crossed romance if I’ve ever heard one.
Cozy Up!
I, for one, am happy to see this blossoming of cozy books across genres. I’m also curious if authors are figuring out how to inject coziness into genres where it hasn’t been seen. Cozy action? Cozy thriller? Can plot-driven genres abide by the vibes-based demands of coziness? I bet there are authors who could make it work. I want to read the equivalent of the Crayola factory sequence from Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. So much is happening, and yet it is soothing and delightful.
Times are tough, and it can be heartening to read about characters who are fundamentally kind and trying to do the best they can for themselves and their community. Optimistic literature doesn’t have to be naive or unrealistic; it can hold us together.
